Real-time incident reporting from a large community of users is Waze’s flagship feature, and it’s an important reason to choose this Google-owned navigation app over its sibling, Google Maps. However, the crash reporting capability is not the same for all markets, as local laws may affect specific functionality. Police reports, available in Waze since the service’s debut, are a popular feature that is not available in all countries, Europe being a good example. Some countries have forced Waze to disable police incident reporting, while others have implemented laws that may force Waze to temporarily remove police sightings from the app menu.
More recently, Waze disabled this feature in Switzerland and Liechtenstein. This happened in August 2026, following Swiss legislation, the Federal Road Traffic Act. Waze highlighted the change in an update to its support pages for the two neighboring countries, explaining that Article 98a of the law “prohibits devices intended to obstruct, disrupt or render ineffective official road traffic control, as well as to warn road users of such controls.” The same supporting document also states that speed cameras are deactivated in Switzerland in accordance with local laws. Since cameras are not present on the road, Waze has removed the option to report camera incidents in the area.
The change will primarily affect residents of Switzerland and Liechtenstein who use Waze for navigation, but also foreigners traveling by car in both countries, as the service may restrict alerts based on location rather than account nationality.
Other Waze fonts report disruptions
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According to Radiolac, Swiss legislation requiring Waze to remove police alerts from the app has been in effect for 13 years, but Google only complied in August 2026. Switzerland and Liechtenstein are not the only countries in Europe where Waze incident reports lack options for reporting to the police.
For example, France passed a law in 2019 that allows authorities to temporarily block police reports in Waze and other apps. Although this feature is intended to alert drivers to the presence of police patrols on highways and other roads, which may indicate that speed checks are in progress, it may also interfere with other law enforcement activities. French law can also be used to prevent Waze from displaying police alerts in the app during manhunts and other police activities unrelated to traffic control, such as alcohol and drug checks. In June 2026, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruled that EU member states could restrict the reporting of certain traffic police checks, after the French measures were challenged by Waze competitor Coyote. But unlike Switzerland and Liechtenstein, these measures have expiration dates. Furthermore, the application stopped showing police observations in France during the Covid-19 lockdowns in early 2020.
In other words, because Google must operate its navigation apps in accordance with local laws, Waze users may experience discrepancies between different countries. This means that the lack of a police report icon is not a Waze bug when using the app in other regions. Unfortunately, Waze does not offer a support document detailing the local availability of police reports. Instead, it explains that font-related features may not be available worldwide.
Can you replace Waze police reports with something else?
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According to Google, when reporting a police car on the road, Waze users can choose the general term (“Police”) or select a more detailed option, such as Moving Camera, Hidden, and Other Side. If police reports are permanently or temporarily disabled in your area, you will not have access to any of them. There is no alternative to reporting police patrols in Waze. Other navigation apps, such as Google Maps and Apple Maps, may also support incident reporting, but these apps must also comply with local laws.
Driving the speed limit is a way to keep you safe and reduce the risk of speeding fines in areas where police reports aren’t available in Waze. The app can help you because it can display the current speed. To enable the Speedometer feature, go to the Settings menu, tap Speedometer and enable the Show Speedometer feature. The menu also allows users to select the option to display the speed limit in the navigation panel and set a speed threshold, which warns the driver to slow down with an audible alert.
Finally, Waze users can still report certain speed cameras even if police reports aren’t available, as these are two different incident reporting categories in the app. However, this is speculation based on the app’s crash reporting menu. Users should check which incident reporting options are available in a specific region before getting behind the wheel and especially when traveling abroad.
